Do you think I should chill the f*** out a bit with this?

[usernoidea]

First time mum to a 5 month baby.....pretty relaxed about everything, relatively "easy" baby in comparison to friends and family but one thing I do like to do is stick to a relatively strict routine with his sleeps/naps so we can predict (roughly) the times he has his longish afternoon nap and bedtime .
I find a lot of other mums making digs to just bring him along to things when I'm keen for him to go down either for the evening (he's asleep by 7pm) or after lunch (when I know I'll get a bit of me time) . Their kids barely sleep at all during the day unless their pounding the streets or on them and that's ok for them but not what I want
Am I being too strict and boring and should I "chill the fuck out" a bit?!
X

Have not rtft. I had my little one in a routine at night which I'd have been loath to change by the same age as your one. Re the other naps I'm like your friends in that I could never get LO to do it unless he was in the buggy or on me, but if you can good luck to you and I can see why you wouldn't want to interrupt it!

we have kept to a routine at night for our 2, they are always in bed by 7:30 no matter what we are doing and 99 times out of 100 we go home to put them to bed, we don't stay out and try and get them to sleep in strange places. none of our friends and family have ever said a word about us sticking to our routine - its what works for us. if they don't like it they can fuck off and get on with their life.

as for naps during the day we weren't so strict because neither of ours were ready to sleep at the same time, if you put them down they would go to sleep but if they were awake and a nap was later but an hour or so it was no big deal. the difference we found was neither of them would eat if they were tired so lunch might have been a little later some days.

I have to stick to my children's routine. They would be so badly behaved if I went out over nap time.

Arrange things for the morning till they're older and more flexible.

My ds absolutely loves sleep and always has. As a baby he'd sleep 7-7 at night and a 2 hour nap in the morning and same again in the afternoon.

My friends always got annoyed I wouldn't go out but I loved that time to myself to do housework, watch to or nap. No way was I going to give that up. Plus if ds missed a nap he was super grumpy

I do loads every morning and mid to late pm just go home between 12-2.30. Other mums meet for lunch most days round here as theirs don't do a routine. I meet them occasionally but the rest of the day/night is a disaster so I'm happy to do our own thing for a bit.
They tell me theirs sleep through the night (yeah from midnight)! I'll just stick to what I'm doing cheers!
Thanks to those who've posted nice things. It's a slog this newborn thing isn't it?! X

Seriously, what you're doing sounds fine!

Yes it is! Hence I wouldn't give up my lunch hour and morning slot where mine naps. Sleep feeds sleep. Keeping them out / making them fit in with your pre-baby life can only lead to unhappy babies and families in the long run. There has to be balance, and going out until lunchtime sounds like balance to me!

User I could have written your post a few years ago! I don't regret sticking to DD's routine at all. Yes I missed a few NCT lunches, but we did fun stuff in the morning and afternoon as you are, I got some guaranteed time to myself and my evenings and nights were peaceful. It worked for us and it sounds like it's working brilliantly for you.

Thanks again. It's made me feel a bit better about sticking to my guns esp as I've just left a coffee morning to come home to put baby down for his snooze - some of the mums were making a few digs about it (but then bitching about how there's don't sleep at all unless being held etc) ......seems madness to me!

I had a routine with DD in that she slept the same time every day after lunch... but in her pushchair or in her bed. So I could go out, or not, and she still slept. I'm sure it was just luck. But I would rather have a child that slept only in a pushchair than only in a bed. Though with your first it doesn't matter so much. Second and later it can be impossible to be at home every day at a particular time.

It's great to be home and get things done but especially at the weekends it is nice to have a bit more flexibility. I love that we can go out for a whole day with DD; we went to the zoo on sunday and while we stayed there all day and saw all the animals, our friends had to go home at 12 so DD's little friend could nap.

But ultimately if it's working for you - keep doing it. It can be handy to have a child who naps in the pushchair, though.

Sorry should clarify - I meant daytime sleeps. As you can have the pushchair in the house, but you can't have the cot out of the house. I would NOT want a child that only slept at night in a pushchair!!

It depends on your child. Some are a nightmare if they don't get their nap at the exact same time every day. Others are much more flexible. I consider myself lucky that my DS is one of the flexible ones, because my sanity would not allow me to stay at home every day. I have a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out!) and liked to go to all the NCT lunches and groups that suited me. DS slept happily in my arms when younger or in his pushchair when slightly older. More recently, at 10 months or so, he has become harder to settle in a pushchair in busy environments like coffee shops or restaurants. But he doesn't melt down and will just sleep in the car on the way home, a bit later than he otherwise would have done if we were at home.

Unlike many babies, DS's nighttime sleep has never been much affected by what he's done during the day. Like all babies he's had periods of bad sleep - in particular we had a memorable 2 months when he was 6-8 months old where he spent over 2 hours wide awake every night in the early hours - but there was never a correlation with his napping. So for me, it was best for all of us to be laid back and not stuck in a rigid routine.

The difference is all of my friends do what's best for us and we don't judge each other for it! Some of my friends would turn up late if their babies needed to nap, or leave early. Whatever suits you and your baby.

He does sleep in a pram and in the car and we are out most of the day as I too would explode but I do like having 2 hours a day to scratch my arse!

My DD is 10 weeks old and for the past week I've got her into a routine. The previous 9 weeks were a bit of a mess, feeding on demand, sometimes once a night, sometimes twice, napping whenever, not really knowing day from night. I was finding I was missing out on pretty much anything social and getting no sleep, so I based the routine around what I wanted to do and when. Everything is so much easier now! I do feel a bit OCD about the routine as I'm worried that one slip up will ruin the whole thing!